About CVE

Introduction

Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE®) is a dictionary of common names (i.e., CVE Identifiers) for publicly known information security vulnerabilities. CVE’s common identifiers make it easier to share data across separate network security databases and tools, and provide a baseline for evaluating the coverage of an organization’s security tools. If a report from one of your security tools incorporates CVE Identifiers, you may then quickly and accurately access fix information in one or more separate CVE-compatible databases to remediate the problem.

Why CVE

CVE was launched in 1999 when most information security tools used their own databases with their own names for security vulnerabilities. At that time there was no significant variation among products and no easy way to determine when the different databases were referring to the same problem. The consequences were potential gaps in security coverage and no effective interoperability among the disparate databases and tools. In addition, each tool vendor used different metrics to state the number of vulnerabilities or exposures they detected, which meant there was no standardized basis for evaluation among the tools.

CVE’s common, standardized identifiers provided the solution to these problems.

CVE is now the industry standard for vulnerability and exposure names. CVE Identifiers — also called "CVE names," "CVE numbers," "CVE-IDs," and "CVEs" — provide reference points for data exchange so that information security products and services can speak with each other. CVE Identifiers also provides a baseline for evaluating the coverage of tools and services so that users can determine which tools are most effective and appropriate for their organization’s needs. In short, products and services compatible with CVE provide better coverage, easier interoperability, and enhanced security.

Widespread Adoption

The cyber security community endorsed the importance of CVE via "CVE-Compatible" products and services from the moment CVE was launched in 1999. As quickly as December 2000 there were 29 organizations participating with declarations of compatibility for 43 products. Today, those numbers have increased significantly with 300+ products and services from 150+ organizations listed on the CVE Web site. A major milestone for compatibility was the formalization of the CVE Compatibility Process in 2003 that led to the ongoing presentation of "Certificates of CVE Compatibility" to those organizations that achieve "official" compatibility status for their products or services.

CVE has also been used as the basis for entirely new services. NIST’s U.S. National Vulnerability Database (NVD)—a "comprehensive cyber security vulnerability database that integrates all publicly available U.S. Government vulnerability resources and provides references to industry resources"—is synchronized with, and based on, the CVE List. NVD also includes Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) mappings for CVE-IDs. SCAP is a method for using specific standards to enable automated vulnerability management, measurement, and policy compliance evaluation (e.g., FISMA compliance) and CVE is one of the open community standards SCAP uses for enumerating, evaluating, and measuring the impact of software problems and reporting results. In addition, the U.S.
Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) requires verification of compliance with FDCC requirements using SCAP-validated scanning tools. CVE Change Logs is a tool created by CERIAS/Purdue University that monitors additions and changes to the CVE List and allows users to obtain daily or monthly reports. MITRE’s Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE™) is a formal dictionary of common software weaknesses that is based in part on the
65,000+ CVE Identifiers on the CVE List, and its Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language (OVAL®) is the standard for determining vulnerability and configuration issues on computer systems using community-developed XML schemas and definitions with its OVAL Vulnerability Definitions based primarily on CVE Identifiers.

CVE Community

CVE is an international information security community effort. In addition to the contributions of the CVE Editorial Board and the CVE Sponsor, numerous organizations from around the world have made their products CVE-Compatible, have included CVE Identifiers in their security advisories, and/or have adopted or promoted the use of CVE.

CVE Editorial Board

MITRE’s Role

The MITRE Corporation maintains CVE and this public Web site, manages the compatibility program, oversees the CVE Naming Authorities, and provides impartial technical guidance to the CVE Editorial Board throughout the process to ensure CVE serves the public interest.

The CVE Editorial Board includes members from numerous
cyber security-related organizations from around world such as commercial security tool vendors, members of academia, research institutions, government agencies, and other prominent security experts. Through open and collaborative discussions, the Board identified the vulnerabilities or exposures and the
product coverage to be included in the
CVE List, and oversees the ongoing assignment of new entries.

CVE Sponsor

CVE Naming Authorities

CVE Numbering Authorities (CNAs) are major OS vendors, security researchers, and research organizations that assign CVE Identifiers to newly discovered issues without directly involving MITRE in the details of the specific vulnerabilities, and include the CVE Identifiers in the first public disclosure of the vulnerabilities.

Take the Next Step

We encourage you to adopt CVE-Compatible Products or Services for your enterprise, incorporate CVE Identifiers into your products or research, and/or promote the use of CVE. Contact cve@mitre.org for more information.